Chapter 59 Japan

Although there are two opinions within the Qing Dynasty, whether to fight or not to fight, Japan, which is deliberately expanding, is already bound to win against North Korea: it is up to you whether to fight or not! The war is about to begin! Before that, we have to introduce the opponent of the Qing Dynasty, Japan. Due to Japan's special geographical location, Japan is well aware of the importance of sea control, so it paid special attention to naval construction after the Meiji Restoration began. Emperor Meiji took out his private money, the emperor's wife also saved her makeup expenses, and even the emperor's mother Obasan donated her few pieces of jewelry, all of which were used for naval military expenses.Following the example of the imperial family, all Japanese people tightened their belts and donated money to the navy one after another.

Note that only a part of the Japanese naval expenditure is used to buy warships from the West, and a considerable part is used to support the warship-manufacturing industry, such as Mitsubishi. Because the Japanese understand that the fate of a country's industrialization is basically equivalent to the fate of a country's navy.Without industrialization, who will repair a broken warship?Who can buy the shells?You can't just rely on imports to solve the problem, right? In addition, Japan also attaches great importance to the ideological education of the army, so their officers have a high degree of national awareness, and their soldiers have a nationalistic spirit of sacrifice.Although this is a disaster for other countries.

In any case, the independence of the military industry, especially the ideological education of the army, is exactly what the Qing Dynasty and Li Hongzhang neglected!It wasn't until thirty years later that a hero who had been defeated and fought repeatedly stepped forward to regain the old mountains and rivers, and he realized this, and handed in a nearly perfect answer with practical actions. Closer to home. Since then, the development of the Japanese navy has been booming, and the inspection of battleship formation exercises has become the joy of Emperor Meiji. I have iron armored warriors, who is the opponent in the world?

The excited Emperor Meiji also received an unexpected piece of good news.According to reliable information, the imaginary enemy Qing has less and less investment in the navy. Since the Beiyang Navy was fully formed in 1888, it was difficult for Li Hongzhang to obtain military expenses from Weng Tonghe, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs (Minister of Finance).Because under Cixi's instruction, Minister Weng used military expenses for other magical purposes.For example, the construction of the Summer Palace, a royal resort, embezzled 7.5 million taels of silver for the military.

As soon as Emperor Meiji heard the news, he was immediately inspired: while the Qing Navy had no money, he quickly asked the British to buy me the most advanced fast cruiser "Yoshino"! ... If you don't advance, you will retreat. A few years ago, the Beiyang Navy, which was the number one in Asia, lost to the Japanese Navy at least in the mobility of warships, artillery strength, and the quality of soldiers before the war. Well, the introduction about Japan ends here.